Continuing the theme of the previous post, Research Australia has also been looking into the impact of an economic crunch on the community’s health.
Their investigations raise concerns for the wellbeing of many vulnerable groups – especially in rural Australia – but also show there are many unanswered questions about the relationship between recession and health.
Dr Megan Keaney and Rebecca James from Research Australia, write:
What does economic crisis mean for a country’s health? Hunger and hardship for the population’s most vulnerable, judging by the news coming out of the US.
Croakey’s North American correspondent, Dr Lesley Russell, writes:
“While an excellent discussion is underway on Croakey about the value of calorie labeling in tackling obesity, it has been shocking this week to confront front page news that the number of Americans who don’t have enough food is at an all-time high, largely as a consequence of the nation’s economic crisis.
Australia does a pretty woeful job of making sure babies get the best start to life – mother’s milk. A new national strategy aims to boost the uptake of breast feeding recommendations so that far more babies are still being breast fed at six months.
But Ron Batagol, a pharmacy and drug information consultant, says this will require us to examine some of our somewhat hypocritical attitudes towards breasts.
He writes:
Health reform is in the wind but perhaps it won’t really make the difference that is being sought unless it acknowledges and addresses some hard truths about health care.
That is the suggestion of this very interesting piece below from Patrick Bolton, who has long and diverse experience in the industry. He has worked as a GP and hospital administrator in urban and rural Australia in several states and territories. He has researched and published in health data, information management and health systems evaluation. He is national vice-president of the Australian Hospitals and Healthcare Association, and Conjoint Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of NSW.
Bolton writes:
In the late 1800s, when the people of eastern Quebec realised the money that could be made from what was known locally as “cotton rock”, they decided to name their settlement after it. They never could have guessed what it might one day mean to come from a town called Asbestos.
All these years later, Canada is still mining, manufacturing and exporting asbestos.
At the American Public Health Association conference last week, a resolution (you can download it here) was passed calling for a global ban on asbestos mining, and manufacturing, and the export of asbestos containing products.
Canada received particular mention for continuing to export the stuff to developing countries while banning its local use, and also for blocking the inclusion of chrysotile asbestos in a list of hazardous substances requiring prior informed consent when exporting them under the Rotterdam convention.
But Dr Yossi Berger, an occupational health and safety expert with the Australian Workers’ Union, believes it’s time to shift the debate beyond bans, and to start looking at removing asbestos from buildings and anywhere else it may be putting lives at risk. He writes:
The study investigating over-diagnosis in breast cancer screening, as previously described at Croakey, is attracting widespread interest and discussion.
Andrew Penman, Chief Executive Officer of Cancer Council NSW, has been considering the complexities of the issues involved, and writes:
Copyright © 2008 Private Media Pty Ltd, Publishers of Crikey.com.au. All Rights Reserved.
Independent news, blogs and commentary on politics, media and business.
Editor: Jonathan Green.
Publishers: Eric Beecher, Diana Gribble.
Level 7, 22 William St, Melbourne, 3000. Ph: 1800 985 502 Fax: (03) 8623 9975
